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PLOT: Pleasant biopic of Beatrix Potter, author of Peter Rabbit and other children's books. Potter, who had a tragic love life, was a 19th-century rebel, a free spirit, an artist and a very important land conservationist.
Based on the characters she created -- Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, the Flopsy bunnies or those two bad mice -- Beatrix Potter might seem to be a gentle woman, typical of her era. Wrong.
According to Miss Potter, a film that stars Renee Zellweger, Beatrix Potter was a hugely talented woman who fought the social restrictions of 19th-century London to pursue a publishing career and create a real-estate empire.
Potter, depicted in the film as willful and much ahead of her time, used the money from her successful children's books to buy up farms and other property in the Lake District. She eventually left 4,000 acres of countryside to England's National Trust, ensuring its protection.
Zellweger plays Potter as a good-natured but rebellious young woman intent upon doing something more than just making a good marriage. Her parents (Barbara Flynn and Bill Paterson) are generally dismayed, but Beatrix is determined to lead her own life.
She paints. She writes. After being rejected by several publishers, she has Peter Rabbit printed privately. It is an immediate success. Potter then gets a publisher in Frederick Warne & Co. and eventually a suitor in Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor), her editor. His sister Millie (Emily Watson) also becomes a close friend, as does Millie and Norman's mother (Phyllida Law). Whatever else is going on in Miss Potter, the cast is not shabby.
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Beatrix Potter's life was not free of tragedy, as the film reveals. Overall, however, this one is a fairly mild-mannered outing -- an interesting approach to the life of a woman keen to chart her own course. Miss Potter is pretty to look at, full of period detail and scenery that reflects Potter's own love of the countryside. As well, the story has a few delightful moments of animation, used mostly to illustrate the creative process.
But the script is downright Victorian in its restraint and gentility. There is one moment of sexual tension in the story, and not much else that pertains to adult life. Even death takes place off-screen; much seems glossed over.
Beatrix Potter appears to have been an eccentric character. This is one more item that makes it impossible to watch Miss Potter without thinking that Emily Watson and Renee Zellweger might have switched roles. Just a thought.
BOTTOM LINE: This is an earnest and rather sweet film, and one that will vanish from your mind as soon as the final credits roll. You could bring the children, who might like to know a little bit about the woman who created Peter Rabbit.
(This film is rated G)